Shero will likely have to go hunting for bargain basement 3rd/4th liners and 3rd pairing guys at or around league minimum.

I think it'll be higher than $64.3M for the 14-15 season, but not by a lot. The above situation is a bit unsettling for me. We're all okay to say goodbye to Sutter (I'd guess he'll be due to make around $3.5M on his next deal?)...and see Orpik ($4M) go elsewhere? What about Niskanen ($3.5M) and Despres ($3-3.5M...just a guess if he's able to establish himself as a top-4 by '14-15?)???

Assuming those 4 get resigned...that would then leave us only about $10-$11M to sign all the remaining 11 roster spots. Yikes.

I think Orpik is gone after his deal expires unless he takes a big cut. Letang is more likely to be traded than Malkin is IMO. At some point, either those D-men you drafted either (1) become the top-4 players they are supposed to be or (2) you turn them into other assets.

If Letang would get dealt before Malkin I would be interested to see what Letang brings in return would Shero bring in a winger? or another D-man that's cheaper then Letang and hope he fills in for him.

SolidSnake wrote:If Letang would get dealt before Malkin I would be interested to see what Letang brings in return would Shero bring in a winger? or another D-man that's cheaper then Letang and hope he fills in for him.

I feel like, if they were to trade Letang, they'd believe that Simon Despres or Joe Morrow was ready to fill that spot.

SolidSnake wrote:If Letang would get dealt before Malkin I would be interested to see what Letang brings in return would Shero bring in a winger? or another D-man that's cheaper then Letang and hope he fills in for him.

I feel like, if they were to trade Letang, they'd believe that Simon Despres or Joe Morrow was ready to fill that spot.

That's true an in-house replacement would make the most sense. Letang wouldn't fetch as much as Malkin, it's going to be interesting.

SolidSnake wrote:If Letang would get dealt before Malkin I would be interested to see what Letang brings in return would Shero bring in a winger? or another D-man that's cheaper then Letang and hope he fills in for him.

I feel like, if they were to trade Letang, they'd believe that Simon Despres or Joe Morrow was ready to fill that spot.

That's true an in-house replacement would make the most sense. Letang wouldn't fetch as much as Malkin, it's going to be interesting.

Again, if you keep drafting and trading for young strapping D-men they had better make it/be flipped into other assets. I'm not as critical as others of Shero's apparent fetish in this respect, but they had better start paying dividends and soon.

slappybrown wrote:Malkin's not going anywhere and will be re-signed for a few reasons, the most important being somewhere around 9-10 million in guaranteed dollars that he will never see if he signs somewhere else. The best he can do is a seven-year deal somewhere else versus an eight-year deal here. Unless he makes up that figure somewhere else -- where they'd have to add around 1.2mm or so onto each year -- it makes no economic sense for this enigmatic, greedy, lackadaisacal Eurotrash Russian to sign anywhere else.

Carrying two cap hits between 8.7-10 over 8 years isn't as bad as it sounds, particularly with a cap guaranteed never to go below ~65mm. Its also comparable to what some other teams have done if a bit higher, and Mirtle's cap projections indicate that the by the end of the CBA we could be looking at a 90mm ceiling ( http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/h ... le7029575/ ).

Sid's already acknowledged that Malkin will likely have a higher cap figure than he will, simply because of the fact that you can't do a 12-year deal any longer. If I had to guess, I'd say 8 years, 78 million, coming at 9.75. To compare, if you're another team, that same contract is 7 years, 78 million, for a 11.15 cap hit. As far as I know, no one has ever hit a higher AAV than Ovechkin's 9.5mm. I find it hard to believe that after the lockout, and with the rules in place to prevent owners from committing economic suicide, you'd see someone willing to do a new non-circumvention deal at 11mm plus.

I sign him if he's anywhere between 8.7-10.

If you use Mirtle's projection of a $64.3-mil cap for the 2014-15 season, and start off with Malkin @ $9.5-mil and Letang @ $5.5-mil, this is how things would look:

8.875 cap hit/per year. Crosby won't care at all. Lets call it the little bit extra for those longer flights back to Russia contract. I'd put 500 bucks down right now that's the exact contract he gets after this season.

Nizzy answered the thread, you are free to lock + sticky it Three Stars.

Nizzy wrote:Didn't read the thread but I already though about this a lot.

71 Million 8 Year Contract (Max Years under new CBA)

8.875 cap hit/per year. Crosby won't care at all. Lets call it the little bit extra for those longer flights back to Russia contract. I'd put 500 bucks down right now that's the exact contract he gets after this season.

Nizzy answered the thread, you are free to lock + sticky it Three Stars.

No dumping Malkin :)

Rossi just reported that Crosby has spoken with Shero and does not want Malkin's Cap hit to be higher than his so Shero is planning on asking Malkin to change his number from 71 to 69 so that Shero may then extend him at 8 years, $69 million for a 8.625 Cap hit.